It is 10 years since Sam and Rich Coombes approached the Batlow Fruit Cooperative with their idea to develop the Batlow Cider Co. Kim Berry talks to the brothers about its new addition, Batlow Blended. This article was first published in Food & Drink Business April 2021.
The Batlow Cider Co was just the start of Sam and Rich Coombes’ beverage empire, followed by the awarded Capital Brewing Co and Will&Co Coffee. But the devastating bushfires of 2020, followed by COVID-19 called the brothers back to their roots.
“To know that we are supporting the town of Batlow through the purchasing of apples makes the product development process hugely satisfying for us,” Sam says.
Q. How did the Batlow partnership begin?
In the early 2000s we were heading to the UK to see our Dad a lot and became familiar with the cider culture. There were no locally made products despite Australia having such an incredible apple supply. When we thought about producing one, the first apple brand that sprung to mind was Batlow Apples. We’d grown up with them in our school lunchbox.
Q. Tell us about Batlow Blended.
Our existing ciders – Batlow Premium, Batlow Cloudy and Batlow Saison – are very popular, particularly on premise. The Batlow Blended range is more specifically designed for off premise. With the pandemic, these products were very much a response to a change in drinking culture in Australia.
The flavours are fun, and the packaging is different to other Cider products in the market, taking cues from craft beer, where colour and quirkiness rule. There’s definitely a place and customer for both styles of Batlow product.
The new range only contain fresh crushed Batlow apples with natural ingredients. The three flavours are Tuti Fruiti, a combination of apple and tropical fruits; Ranga Tang Tang, a blend of apple and fresh ginger; and Big Red, inspired by homemade apple pie and made from apple and cinnamon.
We take fresh crushed Batlow apples, ferment dry and add back blended apple and fresh fruits.
Q. The packaging is quite different from your original branding.
We went with a can, it is what customers want to drink from at the moment. It is also much better at preserving the flavour profile and the environment.
The naming convention for all the ciders was also important, once again moving away from the traditional Cider space, which would usually fall into ‘Brand Name – Flavour profile’ we wanted to give each flavour its own personality, hence Tuti Fruiti, Ranga Tang Tang and Big Red.
The design of the cans was done in collaboration with Zero Nine Studios. We wanted something that felt like a retro corner shop / convenience store, which pays to the heritage of the Batlow brand but in a contemporary way.
